A Door

Best and deservedly known for the essay collection Unbound: A Book of AIDS, Shurin also penned The Paradise of Forms: Selected Poems, a PW Best Book last year. A book of thresholds, middles, unfinished episodes, Shurin's latest presents a set of rigorous and exacting deliriums. (Huxley's The Doors of Perception aptly rings through the title.) First- and third-person narrators are interspliced and then abandoned to purely visceral descriptions of muscles, contours, even applause. The diction switches from archaic to pulpy noir to adult contemporary. Yet these 48 prose poems have a immediacy that holds them together perfectly: ""You reached for the vibrated doorknob, warmth and light, put bags down again. He smelled wool, floral walls, a mirror inset with reading lights--throat in the doorway--when you want it, just ask someone, stroking the cool neck of solitude "" Three poems titled ""Chances,"" five ""To John"" and one ""Absolute Monarch"" lend a further air of mystery to the proceedings, which linger over sites of alienating domesticity (""She had an errand in town, put on her hat to reflect the clouds passing..."") and charged sexuality. First-time readers are better off with Paradise, but as a San Francisco Chronicle review advised, readers of Jorie Graham, Michael Palmer and other edgy, glossy elegists will find Shurin's modes familiar but his voice unique. (Oct.) Forecast: Poor production values make Talisman books a hard sell, but if booksellers shelve the book (and Paradise, too) with Unbound, steady sales may ensue. Stores with Gay/Lesbian and Poetry sections might also pick up on the idea of double shelving of all Shurin's titles, further bolstering his readership, already dedicated on the West Coast.